The name " Esdras " is found in the title of four texts (entitled Ezra , Nehemiah , 1 Esdras , 2 Esdras in most English versions ) attributed to, or associated with, the prophet Ezra . The naming convention of the four books of Esdras differs between church traditions , and has changed over time.
108-645: Esdras ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἔσδρας ) is a Greco - Latin variation of the Hebrew name " Ezra " ( Hebrew : עזרא ). The books associated with Ezra are titled differently in different versions of the Bible . The following table summarizes the various names: The Thirty-nine Articles that define the doctrines of the Church of England follow the naming convention of the Clementine Vulgate . Likewise,
216-532: A 'double' book. Jerome , writing in the early 5th century, noted that this duplication had since been adopted by Greek and Latin Christians. Jerome himself rejected the duplication in his Vulgate translation of the Bible into Latin from the Hebrew; and consequently all early Vulgate manuscripts present Ezra–Nehemiah as a single book, as too does the 8th century commentary of Bede , and in the 9th century bibles of Alcuin and Theodulf of Orleans . However, from
324-527: A Chronicler's History existed and included all or part of Ezra–Nehemiah; second, a denial that Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah were ever combined; and third, the suggestion that the two were by the same author but written at different times and issued as separate works. Of the three, it is generally accepted that Ezra–Nehemiah forms a unified work separate from Chronicles: the many scholars who agree on this include H. G. M. Williamson, Sara Japhet, and Gary Knoppers. H. G. M. Williamson (1987) sees three basic stages to
432-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
540-570: A different stance on the expulsion of the Gentiles in Ezra–Nehemiah. According to Heger, Ezra's motive for expelling Gentile women and their offspring was because at the time leaders believed that the identity of the Israelites did not depend of the ethnicity of their mothers, but depended on the seed of their fathers. The motive behind prohibiting intermarriage with all Gentile women was due to
648-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in
756-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
864-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near
972-589: A future when a penitent and purified people would be allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. (These ideas are expressed in the prophets Jeremiah (although he was not exiled to Babylon), Isaiah, and, especially, Ezekiel). The same period saw the rapid rise of Persia, previously an unimportant kingdom in present-day southern Iran, and in 539 BCE Cyrus the Great , the Persian ruler, conquered Babylon. In
1080-410: A study by Lester Grabbe indicates that while genuine Persian documents may underlie a number of them, they have been reworked to fit the purposes of later writers. The narrative is highly schematic, each stage of the restoration following the same pattern: God "stirs up" the Persian king, the king commissions a Jewish leader to undertake a task, the leader overcomes opposition and succeeds, and success
1188-467: A variety of different reasons. In either case, these two viewpoints on intermarriage with exogamous groups have differences, but ultimately, each is trying to promote and protect the ethnicity of their own group. Southwood goes on to discuss that both Ezra and Nehemiah display a "consciousness of ethnicity', though Southwood focuses primarily on Nehemiah's case, and the importance of the relationship between ethnicity and language. In Nehemiah specifically,
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#17327797136111296-567: Is Esdras, and there are two versions of the Greek Ezra–Nehemiah, Esdras alpha (Ἔσδρας Αʹ) and Esdras beta (Ἔσδρας Βʹ). Esdras beta, which is still used in churches of the Greek-speaking and other Orthodox Christian traditions, is close to the standard Hebrew version, but Esdras alpha (or 1 Esdras ) is very different: it reproduces only the material that pertains to Ezra, and ignores Nehemiah; while including additional material in
1404-400: Is Zerubbabel) "the prince of Judah", to rebuild the Temple; 40,000 exiles return to Jerusalem led by Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest. There they overcome the opposition of their enemies to rebuild the altar and lay the foundations of the Temple. The Samaritans , who are their enemies, force work to be suspended, but in the reign of Darius the decree of Cyrus is rediscovered, the Temple
1512-593: Is a book in the Hebrew Bible found in the Ketuvim section, originally with the Hebrew title of Ezra (Hebrew: עזרא , 'Ezrā ), called Esdras B (Ἔσδρας Βʹ) in the Septuagint . The book covers the period from the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE to the second half of the 5th century BCE, and tells of the successive missions to Jerusalem of Zerubbabel , Ezra , and Nehemiah , and their efforts to restore
1620-580: Is a transgression, and Nehemiah emphasizes that marriage to non-Jews is a sin. Even though this book says specific groups, the book of Ezra prohibits all exogamy. According to Christine Hayes, Ezra is concerned about the holy seed being profaned since he believes God has chosen his people as being holy. Since anyone that is not inside of the chosen group is considered not holy, it would be sinful to marry and reproduce with them, according to Ezra. Scholars also believe that there were further political reasons behind Nehemiah's protest against intermarriage, and Ezra had
1728-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout
1836-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system
1944-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During
2052-606: Is commonly misconceived that the expulsion of the Gentile wives was a result of Judaean exceptionalism and nationalism. Hayes points out that the theory is not correct arguing that the root cause is largely a fundamental and core belief found within the religious laws of the Judaeans. Ezra, Hayes explains, imagined Israel as divinely ordained to remain pure and holy, set apart and without the influence of other nations in Canaan, just as
2160-431: Is completed, and the people celebrate the feast of Passover . God moves king Artaxerxes to commission Ezra the priest and scribe to return to Jerusalem and teach the laws of God to any who do not know them. Ezra leads a large body of exiles back to the holy city, where he discovers that Jewish men have been marrying non-Jewish women. He tears his garments in despair and confesses the sins of Israel before God, then braves
2268-408: Is marked by a great assembly. Ezra–Nehemiah is made up of three stories: (1) the account of the initial return and rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra 1–6); (2) the story of Ezra's mission (Ezra 7–10 and Nehemiah 8); (3) and the story of Nehemiah, interrupted by a collection of miscellaneous lists and part of the story of Ezra. God moves the heart of Cyrus to commission Sheshbazzar (whose other name
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#17327797136112376-871: Is not included in the Greek Septuagint and no complete copy of the Greek text has survived, though it is quoted by the Church fathers . Due to its apocalyptic content, the book (specifically as referring to chapters 3-14) has also been called Esdras the Prophet , Apocalyptic Esdras or The Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra . Because the most complete extant text is in Latin, the book is also called Latin Esdras . The Latin version differs from other versions of 2 Esdras in that it contains additional opening and closing chapters, which are also called 5 Ezra and 6 Ezra by scholars. Other books associated with Ezra are
2484-573: Is perhaps the most debated issue regarding the book. Ezra 7:8 records that Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the seventh year of king Artaxerxes, while Nehemiah 2#Verses 1–8:1–9 has Nehemiah arriving in Artaxerxes' twentieth year. If this was Artaxerxes I (465–424 BCE), then Ezra arrived in 458 and Nehemiah in 445 BCE. Nehemiah 8 – 9 , in which the two (possibly by editorial error) appear together, supports this scenario. In 1890, however, it
2592-588: Is probably later, possibly even as late as 336–331 BCE (the reign of Darius III , the last Persian king); it probably circulated as an independent document before being combined with Ezra. There are seven Persian documents embedded in Ezra–Nehemiah, six in Ezra and one in Nehemiah. All but one are in Aramaic language , the administrative language of the Persian empire. Many scholars accept these as genuine, but
2700-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to
2808-861: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Ezra-Nehemiah Ezra–Nehemiah ( Hebrew : עזרא נחמיה , 'Ezrā-Nəḥemyā )
2916-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around
3024-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
3132-516: Is that of Bede in the early 8th century. The fact that Ezra–Nehemiah was translated into Greek by the mid-2nd century BCE suggests that this was the time by which it had come to be regarded as scripture. It was treated as a single book in the Hebrew, Greek and Old Latin manuscripts. The duplication of translations of Ezra was rejected by Jerome in his Latin Vulgate translation, who did not translate 'Esdras alpha'. In later medieval manuscripts of
3240-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with
3348-1027: The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra , the Latin Vision of Ezra , the Armenian Questions of Ezra , the Syriac Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ezra , the Revelation of Ezra and the Ethiopic Apocalypse of Ezra . The Jewish canon considers the Book of Ezra–Nehemiah to be canonical . All Christians consider the separate books Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah to be canonical. Jews , Roman Catholics , and Protestants do not generally recognize 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras as being canonical. Eastern Orthodox , following
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3456-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It
3564-649: The English Reformation , most English translations have split the book of Ezra–Nehemiah under the titles 'Ezra' and 'Nehemiah'; while the Douay–Rheims version has followed the Clementine Vulgate . Greek Esdras or 1 Esdras (line 3 of the table above) is the version of Ezra most commonly cited as scripture by early Christians, and consequently was included in the Old Testament in late 4th century CE Greek and Latin canon lists before Jerome; but with
3672-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
3780-731: The Old Latin , as witnessed in the Codex Colbertinus . Where the Vulgate text of 3 Esdras is woodenly literal in its rendering of the Greek, the Old Latin text of 'First Esdras' tends towards free paraphrase . The Douay–Rheims version followed the Clementine Vulgate title, while Protestant English versions chose a separate numbering for apocryphal books and called it 1 Esdras (using the Greek form to differentiate
3888-678: The Septuagint , generally consider Esdras A and Esdras B to be canonical, and do not recognize 2 Esdras . The Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra ( 2 Esdras ), whose authorship is ascribed to Ezra , is canonical in the Syriac and Ethiopian traditions; and is included in the Apocrypha of the Armenian Church . Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ )
3996-585: The Vulgate numbering is often used by modern scholars , who nevertheless use the name Ezra to avoid confusion with the Greek and Slavonic enumerations: 1 Ezra (Ezra), 2 Ezra (Nehemiah), 3 Ezra (Esdras A/1 Esdras), 4 Ezra (chapters 3–14 of 4 Esdras), 5 Ezra (chapters 1–2 of 4 Esdras) and 6 Ezra (chapters 15–16 of 4 Esdras). Otherwise, modern scholars sometimes apply the term 'Greek Esdras' for 3 Ezra , and ' Latin Esdras' for 4 Ezra, 5 Ezra and 6 Ezra together. Ambrose of Milan referred to 1 Esdras as
4104-515: The apocryphal book from the canonical Ezra ). Latin Esdras or 2 Esdras (lines 4, 5 and 6 of the table above) is contained in some Latin bibles as 4 Esdras ; and in some Slavonic manuscripts as 3 Esdras . Except for the Douay–Rheims version (which follows the Vulgate), most English versions containing this book call it 2 Esdras (again using the Greek form for the apocryphal book). The book
4212-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in
4320-449: The "Holy seed", rather than on physical difference such as skin and hair color, which in any case do not really differ between these two populations. Thus the term "ethnicity" may be best in relation to the people in general, but in relation to intermarriage Southwood feels that "nationalism" and "ethnicity" both do justice. She claims that the term "race" is not needed and is used in a negative manner. Like Southwood, Hayes also talks about
4428-469: The "first" and "second" books of Ezra. In the Greek canon, and in all surviving early Greek pandect bibles, 1 Esdras and Ezra–Nehemiah are termed Esdras A and Esdras B respectively. For Ambrose 1 Esdras was the 'first book of Esdras', Ezra–Nehemiah was the 'second book of Esdras', and 2 Esdras was the 'third book of Esdras'. When the Council of Carthage (397) and Synod of Hippo (393), under
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4536-598: The "gentiles" in Ezra-Nehemiah were actually indigenous Judeans who "emulated" the Canaanites. The foreign women, in particular, symbolized the "foreignness" of female impurity, which was "powerful enough to impart ritual havoc". Venter cites verses such as Ezra 9:1 and notes that only the Ammonites, Moabites and Egyptians existed as separate ethnicities during the times of Ezra-Nehemiah. Nehemiah 13:23–27 adds
4644-461: The "holy seed." According to Hayes, Ezra and Nehemiah appear to promote the ban of intermarriage with all Gentiles. According to Hayes, Ezra is not a racial ideology that is concerned with purity of blood, but rather a religious notion of Israel as a "holy seed". With intermarriage the holy seed of Israel becomes mixed with the profane seed. In other words, intermarriage violates the holy seed of Abraham and Israel. Pieter M. Venter argues that most of
4752-559: The 'first book of Esdras', Ezra–Nehemiah as the 'second book of Esdras', and 2 Esdras as the 'third book of Esdras'. Some English translations of the Septuagint , such as the New English Translation of the Septuagint , refer to Esdras A as 1 Esdras, and Esdras B (Ezra-Nehemiah) as 2 Esdras. The two books universally considered canonical , Ezra and Nehemiah (lines 1 and 2 of the table above), originated in
4860-458: The 19th century and for much of the 20th, it was believed that Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah came from the same author or circle of authors (similar to the traditional view which held Ezra to be the author of all three), but the usual view among modern scholars is that the differences between Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah are greater than the similarities, and that Ezra–Nehemiah itself had a long history of composition from many sources, stretching from
4968-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into
5076-500: The 5,000 or so who accompanied Ezra. Nevertheless, there are counter-arguments to each of these and other arguments, and the 398 date has not replaced the traditional one. A proposal that the reference to the "seventh year" of Artaxerxes ( Ezra 7:7 – 8 ) should be read as "thirty-seventh year", putting Ezra's return in 428 BCE, has not won support. Hayes, in her article on impurity in Ancient Jewish society, states that it
5184-540: The 9th century onwards, Latin bibles are found that for the first time separate the Ezra and Nehemiah sections of Ezra–Nehemiah as two distinct books; and this became standard in the Paris Bibles of the 13th century. It was not until 1516/17, in the first printed Rabbinic Bible of Daniel Bomberg that the separation was introduced generally in Hebrew Bibles. The order of the two figures, Ezra and Nehemiah,
5292-531: The Deuteronomic text in their narratives, and believe intermarriage to be a type of transgression. There are other similar nuances that lead some scholars to believe that they are from a similar source. However, there are also differences in the two sources that should not be forgotten. Firstly, the intermarriage debate is between different classes of people, each of which is trying to reserve their sense of ethnicity. Ezra argues that marriage with non-exilic Jews
5400-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
5508-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than
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#17327797136115616-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
5724-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow
5832-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community
5940-448: The Hebrew bible as one book titled Ezra (= Esdras ). Otherwise, however, early Christian citations of the 'Book of Ezra' without qualification commonly denote the alternative Greek translation of Ezra represented by 1 Esdras ; so that when early Christian writers talk of 'two books of Ezra', it is 1 Esdras and Ezra–Nehemiah that are being identified, and surviving Old Latin biblical manuscripts include both books in that order as
6048-473: The Paris bibles so that the Ezra portion becomes 1 Esdras, the Nehemiah portion becomes 2 Esdras, Greek Esdras becomes 3 Esdras and Latin Esdras becomes 4 Esdras. The naming conventions of the Paris bibles were taken over into the Clementine Vulgate . However, in the Stuttgart Vulgate , Ezra–Nehemiah is once again printed as a single text with the title 'Ezra', while (Clementine) 3 Esdras and 4 Esdras are in an appendix; named 3 Ezra and 4 Ezra respectively. Since
6156-406: The Philistines from Ashdod. This implied that the other ethnicites were "symbolic". Despite this, there are verses such as Ezra 6:21 which indicate that these "gentile Judeans" abandoned their pagan background to join Ezra-Nehemiah's exclusive community. Ezra begins with Cyrus entrusting the Temple vessels to Sheshbazzar , "prince of Judah"; this apparently important figure then disappears from
6264-455: The Priestly division were commanded, by God, to practice marriage exclusivity. In reaction to contemporaries, such as Hayes and Klawans, who argue that Ezra–Nehemiah's purity ideology is a product of conservative "ritual" and "moral" purity, independently; Olyan claims that Ezra–Nehemiah's alien expulsion mandate was a result of a melding ideology taken from the two seemingly independent ideas of, "moral" and "ritual" purity and remains exclusive to
6372-416: The Vulgate, especially the Paris Bibles of the 13th century onwards, the single book of Ezra (corresponding to Ezra–Nehemiah) is increasingly split in two, so that the two-books tradition became fixed in the Western church. Jewish bibles continued to treat as a single work, with the title "Ezra," until the 15th century AD, but modern Hebrew bibles still print the Masoretic notes at the end of Nehemiah listing
6480-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
6588-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of
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#17327797136116696-429: The archaeology of Jerusalem and Yehud during the Persian period. Finkelstein found that these passages better reflect the Hasmonean period —a time when Jerusalem and its surround region were much more populated and prosperous—suggesting that Hasmonean authors added them to earlier Persian-era texts. The Hebrew Ezra–Nehemiah was translated into Greek by the mid-2nd century BCE. The Greek and Roman rendering of Ezra's name
6804-607: The city and the friction between Temple and Torah were added to produce the final book of Nehemiah. Lester Grabbe (2003), based on various factors including the type of Aramaic used in the youngest sections and the ignorance of Ezra–Nehemiah as a single book displayed by other Hellenistic Jewish writers, suggests that the two texts were combined, with some final editing, in the Ptolemaic period, c. 300 – c. 200 BCE. Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein has argued extensively that large portions of Ezra–Nehemiah (as well as Chronicles) include content not supported by
6912-472: The composition of Ezra–Nehemiah: (1) composition of the various lists and Persian documents, which he accepts as authentic and therefore the earliest parts of the book; (2) composition of the "Ezra memoir" and "Nehemiah memoir", about 400 BCE; and (3), composition of Ezra 1–6 (the story of Zerubabbel) as the final editor's introduction to the combined earlier texts, about 300 BCE. More recently Juha Pakkala (2004) has carried out an extensive analysis of
7020-442: The danger of assimilation resulting from the influence of social interaction with the surrounding nations. The expulsion of the foreign women and their offspring was directed in order to preserve the purity of the Israelite "holy seed". Thus, Ezra did not introduce the idea of matrilineal identity. Katherine Southwood emphasizes that Ezra and Nehemiah are similar in their views of intermarriage in that both Ezra and Nehemiah allude to
7128-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of
7236-404: The early 4th century down to the Hellenistic period . The accepted view throughout the 19th century and for much of the 20th was that Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah made up a single "Chronicler's History" by an anonymous " Chronicler ". This consensus was challenged in the late 1960s in an important article by Sara Japhet , and today three positions dominate discussion: first, an affirmation that
7344-555: The enslavement of the Jews, and enter into a covenant to keep the law and separate themselves from all other peoples. Nehemiah takes measures to repopulate the city and returns to Susa after 12 years in Jerusalem. After some time in Susa he returns, only to find that the people have broken the covenant. He enforces the covenant and prays to God for his favour. The Mercer Bible Dictionary notes three notable theological themes in Ezra and Nehemiah: God's use of foreign rulers for Israel's sake; opposition to Israel from foreign neighbours; and
7452-448: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute
7560-485: The eyes of ancient Judaean Priests, could turn Yahweh worshippers towards foreign deities and hedonism. Ritual purity stresses the importance of keeping to sacred practices dictated by revered predecessors and the Holy Scriptures. Olyan believes that Ezra's expulsion of the gentiles could also be linked with the idea that outside lineage would initially pollute the priestly bloodline, acting as an apparatus to destroy "right" ritual practice. Another scholar, Paul Heger, takes
7668-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in
7776-570: The form of the 'Tale of the Three Guardsmen' (1 Esdras 3:4 to 4:4). When Early Christian authors cite the 'Book of Ezra" it is always 'Esdras alpha' to which they refer. 'Esdras beta' (Ezra–Nehemiah) supplemented 'Esdras alpha' in Christian bibles from the 4th century onwards, but appears rarely to have been read as scripture; and only the 'Nehemiah' sections are ever cited in patristic texts. The earliest Christian commentary on Ezra–Nehemiah
7884-531: The increasing dominance of Jerome's Vulgate translation it dropped out of use in the West; although from the 13th century, it was commonly reintroduced under the title 3 Esdras . This Latin text of 3 Esdras is found in later medieval Vulgate manuscripts and the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate , and is however a completely different (and likely earlier) translation of Greek Esdras A from that found in
7992-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn
8100-464: The influence of Augustine of Hippo , determined that only 'two books of Ezra' were to be considered canonical, it was both Ezra–Nehemiah and 1 Esdras which were stated as being included in scripture , while 2 Esdras was being excluded. Jerome however, in his new Vulgate translation of the Old Testament directly from the Hebrew of the early 5th century BCE affirmed in his prologue to Ezra that there
8208-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
8316-520: The layers in Ezra. He sees the account of the rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra 5:1–6:15) and the core of the "Ezra memoir" (Ezra 7–10/Nehemiah 8) developing separately until they were combined by an editor who wished to show how Temple and Torah were re-introduced into Judah (known to Persian rulers as Yehud Medinata ) after the exile. This editor also added Ezra 1–5. The combined text was then further developed by priestly circles who stressed Temple over Torah, transformed Ezra from scribe to priest, and stressed
8424-402: The legitimacy of their groups in relation to the experience of the exile, though Nehemiah's concern specifically emphasizes language as a potential means by which ethnicity seemed to be defined. Southwood makes some points in her article in how the terms "race", "ethnicity", and "nationalism" can be used in translations of Ezra 9–10. She points out that there are multiple problems not only inside
8532-640: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek
8640-880: The middle verse as Nehemiah 3:32, indicating that a complete work of Ezra–Nehemiah is in view. (To confuse the matter further there are other quite distinct works in the name of Esdras , largely dealing with visions and prophecies.) The Masoretic Text of Ezra–Nehemiah is largely in Late Biblical Hebrew , with significant sections in Biblical Aramaic there are occasional reflections of Old Persian vocabulary, but little significant influence from Greek. Ezra 1 (the Edict of Cyrus ) and Ezra 2 (the list of returnees) are presented as Persian documents; Ezra 3 – 6 , which contains further supposed Persian documents mixed with third-person narrative, may be based on
8748-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and
8856-536: The need to separate Israel from foreign neighbours to preserve the purity of the people of God. In the last half of Nehemiah the emphasis shifts to the joint role of Ezra and Nehemiah in instructing the people in the Law and in the dedication of the wall, these two activities together forming the reconstitution of Jewish life in Jerusalem; Dillard and Longman describe this as the moment when "the whole city becomes holy ground." The single Hebrew book "Ezra–Nehemiah", with
8964-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks
9072-536: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It
9180-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
9288-473: The opposition of some of his own countrymen to purify the community by dissolving the sinful marriages. Nehemiah , cup-bearer to king Artaxerxes, is informed that Jerusalem remains without walls. He prays to God, recalling the sins of Israel and God's promise of restoration in the land. Artaxerxes commissions him to return to Jerusalem as governor, where he defies the opposition of Judah's enemies on all sides—Samaritans, Ammonites, Arabs and Philistines—to rebuild
9396-421: The original "Nehemiah memoir" was an account of the rebuilding of the city walls. Successive layers were then added to this, turning the building report into an account of Judah's restoration and depicting Nehemiah as a Persian governor who reforms the community of Israel. Finally, after Ezra had come into existence through the combination of Ezra 1–6 with Ezra 7–10, the accounts of the repopulation and dedication of
9504-409: The particular narrative of Ezra–Nehemiah. Moral purity has familial implications, which the lack of may cause disruption in the cohesiveness of the family unit. Transgressing Israelite moral structure was feared to cause violations of the commandments, which ordained by God, must be followed to maintain ethnical identity. The influence of gentile women and culture upon Israelite men and posterity, through
9612-572: The primacy of the Babylonian returnees over those who had remained in the land, a distinction that had not appeared in the original Ezra material. Still later, Levitical editors combined Ezra and Nehemiah to produce the final form of the book, reintroducing interest in Torah and stressing the primacy of the Levites. Jacob Wright (2004) has carried out similar work on Nehemiah. According to his study
9720-410: The prophetic works of Haggai and Zechariah , who were active at the time; Ezra 7–10, partly in the first-person, is sometimes called the "Ezra Memoir", but has been so heavily edited that the source, if it exists, is very difficult to recover. There is widespread agreement that a genuine memoir underlies Nehemiah, although it has clearly been edited. It can be no earlier than about 400 BCE, but
9828-520: The story almost entirely, and Zerubbabel is abruptly introduced as the main figure. Both are called governors of Judah and are both credited with laying the foundation of the Temple. A number of explanations have been proposed, including: (1) the two are the same person; (2) Sheshbazzar was in fact Shenazzar, Zerubabbel's uncle (mentioned in Chronicles); (3) Sheshbazzar began the work and Zerubbabel finished it. Ezra's mission according to Nehemiah 8
9936-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
10044-402: The text but in work of the scholars as well. Although it is evident that the terms "ethnicity" and "race" have similarities, one is just a secondary term of another. This however does not make the text easily translated and makes the expression of those terms as Southwood puts it not "appropriate" on any level. She argues that the text focuses on the distinction between the "people of the land" and
10152-465: The texts in 'Latin Esdras'. Jerome's practice is followed in the 9th century Vulgate bibles of Alcuin and Theodulf of Orleans , but from the 9th century CE onwards Vulgate manuscripts are found sporadically which split Ezra–Nehemiah into two books; and this becomes standard with the Paris Vulgate bibles of the 13th century CE while Greek Esdras and Latin Esdras also came to be included in
10260-446: The title "Ezra", was translated into Greek around the middle of the 2nd century BCE. Slightly later a second, and very different, Greek translation was made, commonly referred to as 1 Esdras . The Septuagint includes both 1 Esdras and the older translation of Ezra–Nehemiah, and names the two books as Esdras A and Esdras B respectively. The early Christian scholar Origen remarked that the Hebrew 'book of Ezra' might then be considered
10368-507: The walls. He enforces the cancellation of debts among the Jews, and rules with justice and righteousness. The list of those who returned with Zerubbabel is discovered. Ezra reads the law of Moses to the people and the people celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days; on the eighth they assemble in sackcloth and penitence to recall the past sins which led to the destruction of Jerusalem and
10476-471: The women that the Jews have married are named specifically as from 'Ashod, Ammon, and Moab' (Neh. 13:23). The concern is then expressed that the Ashodites were connected to Nehemiah's statement of outrage when he says that 'half of their children spoke the language of Ashod... and they were not able to speak the language of Judah' (Neh. 13:24). There is some debate as to how different the language of Ashod
10584-532: The worship of the God of Israel and to create a purified Jewish community. It is the only part of the Bible that narrates the Persian period of biblical history. In the early 6th century Judah rebelled against Babylon and was destroyed (586 BCE). The royal court and the priests, prophets and scribes were taken into captivity in Babylon. There the exiles blamed their fate on disobedience to God and looked forward to
10692-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
10800-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of
10908-505: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
11016-439: Was being put at stake. Southwood makes the point that Nehemiah's objection to intermarriage with foreign women, especially those aforementioned, relates to language being the symbol of ethnicity; therefore, it is not the language itself that is the problem, but rather the preservation of language is a "symptom of deeper concern about protecting ethnic identity." Thus, Southwood holds that both Ezra and Nehemiah are concerned about
11124-417: Was from the Hebrew. However, if the languages were similar, according to Southwood, the problem at stake would be the purity of the language. If this were an entirely different language altogether, the purity of the language would be concern, as well as the concern for the threat of the extinction of the Hebrew language. In either case, the religious and ethnic identity that is encapsuled with the Hebrew language
11232-564: Was only one canonical book of that title, corresponding to Hebrew Ezra–Nehemiah, while the "third and fourth books" of Ezra were apocryphal; and in all early manuscripts of the Vulgate (as with the 7th century CE Codex Amiatinus ) this book is presented without division, and 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras are omitted. Jerome appears to have considered the two books of Ezra in the Old Latin - translating Greek Esdras A and Esdras B respectively - as "variant versions" of Ezra-Nehemiah , in which case his apocryphal "third and fourth books" correspond to
11340-440: Was proposed that Ezra's Artaxerxes was Artaxerxes II , and that the sequence should be reversed, with Nehemiah arriving in 445 and Ezra in 398 BCE. The argument has some persuasive evidence; for example: Nehemiah's mission is to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and Ezra 9 :9 notes that Ezra found the walls in place when he arrived, and while Nehemiah lists the returnees who came back with Zerubbabel he seems to know nothing about
11448-515: Was to apply "the law of Moses " in Jerusalem , which he does by reading a "book of the law of Moses" (a "scroll" in Hebrew) in a marathon public session. Scholars disagree on what the law-book precisely was. Some have suggested it was some form of Deuteronomy , since Ezra's laws are heavily skewed towards that book; others have proposed that it was the " Priestly Writing ", which probably dates from
11556-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
11664-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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